Accessibility statement
What is true today about the checks your visitors see. We do not claim a conformance level, because the checks have not yet been tested by an outside auditor or with real assistive-technology users.
The principle
Most visitors never see a check at all, which is the most accessible check there is. When one does appear, every step must be possible without a mouse, without sight and without fine motor control, and nobody should be stuck: a visitor who cannot complete the puzzle can always switch to the hold.
What works today
- Keyboard
- The hold works with the space bar or Enter. The puzzle piece moves with the arrow keys. Tab stays inside the box while it is open, Escape closes it, and focus returns to where it was.
- Screen readers
- The box is announced as a dialog. Controls carry labels, and status messages such as "Verified" are read out.
- Motion and touch
- Animations and vibration are skipped when the device asks for reduced motion. On phones the box rises from the bottom of the screen, within easy reach of a thumb.
- Right-to-left text
- Arabic lays the box out right to left.
- No audio challenge
- We do not offer an audio alternative. In published tests, people pass audio challenges less than two times in three on the first try, and the keyboard-operable hold already covers the same need without one.
Languages
The box uses the language of the page it is on: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi and Chinese. When the page language is not one of these, the box is in English.
Time limits
Challenges are short-lived for security reasons. A visitor who takes a long time is asked to try again, not turned away. A pass is valid for five minutes once issued, which is a limit on the site's server, not on how long the visitor may take.
What has not been done yet
- No testing with real screen-reader users. The checks have been tested with the browser's accessibility tree and keyboard only.
- No independent audit, and therefore no conformance claim.
- Translations other than English have not yet been reviewed by native speakers.
If a check blocks you or someone you support, we want to know. A contact address will be published with the full legal notice.
For site owners
Because the check is part of your page, your own colours apply to it. An accent colour that would be hard to read on the box is refused, so a brand setting cannot make the check less legible than the default.